Champlain BASE: e-Requests for Services

The Champlain BASE (Building Access to Specialists through eConsultation) is a collaborative project between The Ottawa Hospital, the Bruyère Research Institute, the Winchester District Memorial Hospital and the Champlain LHIN. The project seeks to streamline communications between primary care providers and specialists to reduce the interval to receive specialist advice as compared to traditional referrals.

Dr. Clare Liddy, a family physician and researcher on the Champlain BASE team, explained how she experienced firsthand the effect excessive wait times had on both patients and care providers: “Too often patients waited months, or even years, for specialist treatment to receive care that their PCP [primary care providers] could easily have provided with a bit of guidance from a specialist. We knew the way in which PCPs and specialists communicate could be improved. The solution required innovative, out-of-the-box thinking.”

To date, the Champlain BASE team has processed over 6,000 cases. In 78 per cent of cases submitted, the patient was effectively treated without a face-to-face specialist visit, reducing the burden and costs of visits for patients and their caregivers.